
6
SABBATH-SCHOOL LESSON QUARTERLY
the sincere seeker for truth with reverence and faith. The more
he searches the Bible, the deeper is his conviction that it is the
word of the living God, and human reason bows before the majesty
of divine
revelation." `Testimonies for the Church," volume
5, page 700.
3.
"After trying other books, if you experience religious long-
ings, open the Bible; listen to it. Sometimes you find here the
songs of angels, but of angels that have come down among the
children of Adam. Here is the deep-sounding organ of the Most
High, but an organ that serves to soothe man's heart and to
rouse his conscience, alike in shepherd's cots and in palaces; alike
in the poor man's garrets and in the tents of the desert. The
Bible, in fact, has lessons for all conditions; it brings upon the
scene both the lowly and the great; it reveals equally to both the
love of God, and unveils in both the same miseries. It addresses
itself to children; and it is often children that show us there the
way to heaven and the great things of Jehovah. It addresses
itself to shepherds and herdsmen; and it is often shepherds and
herdsmen that lift up their voices there, and reveal to us the
character of God. It speaks to kings and to scribes; and it is
often kings and scribes that .teach us there man's wretchedness,
humiliation, confession, and prayer. Domestic scenes, confessions
of conscience, pourings forth of prayer in secret, travels, proVerbs,
revelations of the depths of the heart, the holy courses pursued by
a child of God, weaknesses unveiled, falls, recoveries, inward ex-
periences, parables, familiar letters, theological treatises, sacred
commentaries on some ancient scripture, national chronicles, mil-
itary annals, political statistics, descriptions of God, portraits of
angels, celestial visions, practical counsels, rules of life, solutions
of cases of conscience, judgments of the Lord, sacred hymns,
predictions of future events, narratives of what passed during
the days preceding our creation, sublime odes, inimitable pieces' of
poetry; — all this is found there by turns; and all this meets
our view in most delightful variety, and presenting a whole whose
majesty, like that of a temple, is overpowering. Thus it ,is, that,
from its first to its last page, the Bible behooved to combine with
its majestic unity the indefinable charm of human-like instruc-
tion, familiar, sympathetic, personal, and the charm of a drama
extending over forty centuries. In the Bible of Desmarets, it is
said, There are fords here for lambs, and there are deep waters
where elephants swim.'
"—"The Plenary Inspiration of the Holy
Scriptures," by L. Gaussen, pages 55, 56.
4.
"Who does not tremble, after following with his eyes the
Son of man as He commands the elements, stills the storms, and
opens the graves, while, filled with so profound a respect for the
sacred volume, He declares that He is one day to judge by that